The Catawba College Music Department will host a free concert by the Western Carolina University Gamelan Ensemble at 7:30 p.m., Monday, April 18 in Omwake-Dearborn Chapel on campus.  This group will also be performing in local area schools thanks to a grant written by Salisbury’s Susan Trivette.

The WCU gamelan’s name is Kyai Gunung biru which means “Venerable Blue Mountain.”  It is one of 150 gamelans in the U.S. and one of only a handful located in the Southeast. A gamelan is an orchestra of tuned metal percussion instruments characteristic of Java Bali, Malaysia and other island cultures off the coast of Southeast Asia.  The WCU group will perform on an iron gamelan degung, an iron Central Javanese slendro tuning gamelan, and a bronze gamelan angklung from the island of Bali.

For more information about gamelan, visit the website of the American Gamelan Institute at http://www.gamelan.org.